I think Coach B has done a pretty good job replacing assistants and seamlessly melding them into the staff this offseason. I really think the new guys are fitting in well, and so far they seem to be getting positive reviews from recruits. In my view, this has been one of Coach B's strengths in his time at Arkansas.

I agree for the most part, but there have been some letdowns. I do think he's found something he likes by going to the NFL more. It's going to take consistency for Arkansas to be a top contender on a regular basis, so it's nice to retain coaches when you can.

I agree for the most part, but there have been some letdowns. I do think he's found something he likes by going to the NFL more. It's going to take consistency for Arkansas to be a top contender on a regular basis, so it's nice to retain coaches when you can.

I absolutely agree about consistency. That's why I appreciate the contract the University gave CBB. It ensures time to get it done.

He deserved it. If Arkansas is going to get back to fundamentally sound football in all three areas of the game, it is going to have to do it with 4th and 5th year players. That takes time. Bielema should be judged on this year and next year, not the last four.

I think Coach B has done a pretty good job replacing assistants and seamlessly melding them into the staff this offseason. I really think the new guys are fitting in well, and so far they seem to be getting positive reviews from recruits. In my view, this has been one of Coach B's strengths in his time at Arkansas.

I expect it to pay off over the next two seasons.

I agree they do fit in well. One of the concerns I have is the staff turnover. This goes back to his previous stop. Continuity is an important thing. Moving CPR up helps with that, but hopefully he can get his staff settled while he gets x more number of years to "build the program". I mean, it's pretty much built at this point. Now we are just replacing CBB players with more CBB players, but I can understand how some say he is still building.

I was going to write my annual separate positive thread but saw yours and decided to piggyback on it. I noticed when listening to last nights player interviews how much this years players really care for their coaches and their confidence in the coaches feeling the same way about them. Just picking up on bits and pieces here and there it seems we might finally have great coordinators on both sides of the ball, as well as the head coach that these players are going to lay it all on the line for. These kids seem to really trust and respect our coaching staff. Since attitude is so critical at this level I'm predicting a pretty darn good year and season. This team might really surprise some folks to the up side.

I remember several times Bielema referring to Rob Smith as an "angry short guy". I think there was more truth to that than we would normally give it. Not that Rob was a mean or bad person, but I don't think the players related to him. I personally never thought he had much of a personality. Not to mention a terrible scheme that many said was asking players to do the impossible.

I was going to write my annual separate positive thread but saw yours and decided to piggyback on it. I noticed when listening to last nights player interviews how much this years players really care for their coaches and their confidence in the coaches feeling the same way about them. Just picking up on bits and pieces here and there it seems we might finally have great coordinators on both sides of the ball, as well as the head coach that these players are going to lay it all on the line for. These kids seem to really trust and respect our coaching staff. Since attitude is so critical at this level I'm predicting a pretty darn good year and season. This team might really surprise some folks to the up side.

I remember several times Bielema referring to Rob Smith as an "angry short guy". I think there was more truth to that than we would normally give it. Not that Rob was a mean or bad person, but I don't think the players related to him. I personally never thought he had much of a personality. Not to mention a terrible scheme that many said was asking players to do the impossible.

I have no idea if the NFL guy Clay Henry refers to in his piece about our defense knows anything or not, but it does seem we didn't/don't have the personnel to run what we did last year, or the scheme was poorly implemented. I'll wait and make any judgment on this season during it, but surely our defense can't be any worse.

While I'm not negative about the assistants, who is to say he has done a good job or bad job seamlessly melding them. Most assistants are positive guys and professional enough to know what to do and say to the media. That's all we've basically got is what the media tells us. We do not know how they will perform as P5 assistants because both have very little experience at that level. If the D improves noticeably over last year then we can probably say yes they were good hires, or if they are the lead recruiters on some good guys. Rob Smith looked like a fantastic hire after the 2014 season after actually proving it on the field and now he gone.

While I'm hopeful that these new coaches will get it done, whether or not BB did a good job with these hires remains to be seen.

He deserved it. If Arkansas is going to get back to fundamentally sound football in all three areas of the game, it is going to have to do it with 4th and 5th year players. That takes time. Bielema should be judged on this year and next year, not the last four.

Gonna be some hits/misses. Success at one stop doesn't always translate for a variety of reasons. Just have to have a high hit rate, which I would agree he has overall.

To your point, his future here is going to be determined by what transpires this year and next. Installing an entirely new defensive scheme at this stage is a risky gamble. Based on the porous performance the last 2 years and personnel, it may be necessary and pay dividends... but risky nonetheless.

CBB has shown some gamble in him in coaching hires, often selecting someone that has us googling the interwebs for a bio. The Enos hire alone was a homerun that offsets more than 1 "meh" hire. When he did go the "safe" route and hired the fat kid currently impersonating an OC at GA, he hasn't been afraid to course correct quickly. My guess is that we may see a similar outcome on Defense. Bringing in Rhoads as a position coach was a calculated risk, but gave him a year (similar to early enrollees) to learn "Hoganese" before making his mark. Pulling a percentage of his staff from the NFL is also smart and I hope we always keep a mix of college and pros.

He's gotta show that his formula works in the next two years, but honestly believe if it fails that it won't be because he was afraid to put chips in the pot and gamble.

When CBB first got here he had some home run hires, CCP, CRS, and CSP. Since then, it's been much less high profile and seeming much more fourth or fifth choice down the line.(Speculation of course). All in all, I could care less who the coordinators are as long as they can help win football games.

No he has not. He has been average at best. He has a 10-22 conference record. 25-26 overall record. He is well liked and well thought of nationally. But what are his marque wins at Arkansas? Texas?

Back to back shut outs of ranked OM and LSU in 2014.Back to back bowl wins in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history in 2014 and 2015.38-10 thrashing of Florida, the only team we had not beaten since joining the SEC and the eventual SECE Champion in 2016.

Back to back shut outs of ranked OM and LSU in 2014.Back to back bowl wins in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history in 2014 and 2015.38-10 thrashing of Florida, the only team we had not beaten since joining the SEC and the eventual SECE Champion in 2016.

No he has not. He has been average at best. He has a 10-22 conference record. 25-26 overall record. He is well liked and well thought of nationally. But what are his marque wins at Arkansas? Texas?

Now all of you know that I believe in most of what Bielema is doing here and how he goes about building the overall quality of the program in more ways than just wins, but I will be the first to say that for more than one reason in terms of just wins, we haven't achieved at the level that we might have expected that we would and some of that has to be placed in Bielema's lap. And, some of it has been bad luck along with the mess he inherited. We have blown games that we should have won and we have won a few that we probably deserved to lose based on how we have played at times.

Running a Pro Style offense I think that you have to have more of a experienced level of talent in order to succeed. It tends to be more of a "here we come and we dare you to stop us" kind of offense and that is why it requires better, seasoned and experienced, developed talent. The usual spread, HUNH, throw it all over the field or run it all over the field type of offense with exceptional skill players that is built more on deception, misdirection and score more points than your opponent at a frantic pace, doesn't require as much of an experienced team or as developed of an offensive line as the Pro Style.

So while some want to fault Bielema, this is just his type of Offense and it requires time to develop the level of experience needed to be successful and it takes a prolonged time to develop. They ("they", meaning many fans) would more naturally prefer to short cut their way to more wins by focusing on the more wide open style of offense and the defense just being a added necessity. Add in the bad breaks that all teams tend to experience from time to time and not having hired a better defensive coordinator earlier in the process (this has really been what has held us back from more success) and you can see why we are where we are. How many more games, despite our offensive inconsistency at times, would we have won if we just had an average or above average defense? Not even a stellar defense, just average or above average? This too has to fall at the feet of Bielema.

Overall, he is a good coach, seems to be a good man who genuinely cares about his players as people (not just X's and O's) and he brings a lot of value to our program and the players that doesn't involve on-field wins. Many don't see the value in this. I don't think that there is any doubt that he is painfully aware of his shortcomings and the mistakes that have been made that involve the winning-losing side of college football. He is a prideful man that wants to succeed in that regard (as well as the other facets of the program) just as we want him to succeed.

All that said he is going to need to produce a 10-11 win season every 4-5 years or the majority of regular fans may care a lot less about the rest of his goals with regard to the players and the program. JMO

All that said he is going to need to produce a 10-11 win season every 4-5 years or the majority of regular fans may care a lot less about the rest of his goals with regard to the players and the program.

Back to back shut outs of ranked OM and LSU in 2014.Back to back bowl wins in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history in 2014 and 2015.38-10 thrashing of Florida, the only team we had not beaten since joining the SEC and the eventual SECE Champion in 2016.

Back to back shut outs of ranked OM and LSU in 2014.Back to back bowl wins in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history in 2014 and 2015.38-10 thrashing of Florida, the only team we had not beaten since joining the SEC and the eventual SECE Champion in 2016.

Lost to Toledo. Lost to Missouri twice. Lost to Auburn 56-3. 0-4 against Texas A&M.

I think Bielema has done a good (not great) job of finding quality assistants. Lunney and Smith are the core of our assistants and have proven to be great hires. I think Enos is top notch. Mitchell seems to be the best recruiting runningback coach we've had since Bielema's been here. Kurt Anderson has to show improvement on the line or it will be a failed hire.

I think Rhoads is a great hire (move to DC) but we won't know until the season starts. The rest of our defense is an unknown. Hargreaves has been here but our linebacker group hasn't performed that well. I'm interested to see how the dynamic of two linebacker coaches play out on game day. I'm also interested in seeing who is in the booth and who is on the field.

Overall, I like most of our assistant hires but I still want a special team coordinator.

When CBB first got here he had some home run hires, CCP, CRS, and CSP. Since then, it's been much less high profile and seeming much more fourth or fifth choice down the line.(Speculation of course). All in all, I could care less who the coordinators are as long as they can help win football games.

I agree some of his choices seem like 4th or 5th options but I'd also add to your list of Michael Smith, Lunney ( although where else could we see him?) Enos and Rhodes as home runs hires unless you were meaning name value which Enos and Rhodes would qualify

He deserved it. If Arkansas is going to get back to fundamentally sound football in all three areas of the game, it is going to have to do it with 4th and 5th year players. That takes time. Bielema should be judged on this year and next year, not the last four.

This has been my stance all along. All you had to do was look at how teams at Wisconsin were built to know it was going to be built the same way here and that it was going to take 4-5 years to get that depth in place.

The guy is building depth and quality football players. I don't think anyone really fully appreciated the utter disaster the program was after the JLS season. Combine a lack of depth, morale issues and personnel not truly fitted to the scheme and you can quickly see it was going to take time.

I understand we live in a what have you done for me lately world. I understand we have lost games we shouldn't have lost. We've also won games we shouldn't have won with the talent we had on the field.

This program is on the rise despite last year's setback. The 2018 class is on pace to be one of our better ones, and 2019 could be phenomenal by any standard -- and not by OM tactics.

We're Hog fans, and as such we should know better than anyone how hard it is to find a quality coach. We need to ride out the CBB era as long as we can because we are on the verge of that breakthrough we all long for.

This has been my stance all along. All you had to do was look at how teams at Wisconsin were built to know it was going to be built the same way here and that it was going to take 4-5 years to get that depth in place.

The thing is during those 4 or 5 years the team needs to show a bit of progressing improvement with each passing year. In CBB's second year there was noticeable improvement from the prior year and it looked as though things were headed in the right direction but the last 2 years, the program has stagnated and actually has regressed in some areas (Defense tanked). The recent changes in defensive coaches and the defensive scheme indicate that CBB realizes the urgency of the situation and as a result, I believe the team will have a much better record this coming season.